26 October 2013

Brussels -- During an EU
Environment Council meeting in Luxembourg, EU Member States were split when
debating a proposal by the Cyprus presidency of the European Union to heavily
water down the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation on ship
recycling. According to NGO Shipbreaking Platform, EU governments, amongst whom
Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Estonia, and
Sweden, supported the existing ban on the export of end-of-life ships
containing hazardous wastes to developing countries.

In its current form, the
Commission proposal could effectively legalize the export of end-of-life ships
containing hazardous wastes from the EU to developing countries, a proposal
deemed appropriate by not only Cyprus, but also several other European
governments.

"We call on the Environment
Council and EU governments supporting the Cyprus position to be sensible,"
said Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
"The Commission proposal in its current form cannot, and will not pass the
test of effectively preventing hazardous wastes from being dumped in developing
countries."

Last July the European Economic
and Social Committee said the Commission proposal is "weak and full of
legal loopholes", and concluded that "the political will [to solve
the problem] is manifestly absent".

Implemented into European law

The ban on the export of
end-of-life ships containing hazardous wastes was implemented into European law
with the 2006 Waste Shipment Regulation. Since then, it’s illegal for any ship
to leave any EU port for a shipbreaking destination located in non-OECD
countries. In 2006, the French aircraft carrier "Le Clémenceau" was
brought back to Europe after it was proved that the ship would be beached in
India and the hazardous materials it contained would pollute the land and harm
local communities.

But at this Council meeting, most
Environment ministers seemed ready to rid the EU of the Waste Shipment
Regulation’s competency over ships, claiming the current ban is too easily
circumvented by shipowners. "Realizing that EU Member States have failed
to adequately enforce the existing EU regulation on waste shipments, the
Council seems ready to circumvent this regulation altogether, rather than to
give Member States proper enforcement mechanisms", critizies Patrizia
Heidegger.

Only 8 percent EU-flagged

Out of all ships sent for
breaking every year, 40 percent are owned by European companies, whereas only 8
percent are flagged in the EU. The Commission proposal aims at regulating only
EU-flagged ships sent for breaking, thus only covering 8 percent of all
end-of-life vessels. Basing the future EU ship recycling regulation on flags
competency only is in line with the ratification of the Hong Kong Convention,
which was signed in 2009. In today’s Council debate, some EU governments
including Belgium stated that the main goal of the Commission proposal is to
speed up Hong Kong ratification and - says NGO Shipbreaking Platform -
completely ignored the consequences on the bans on exports of hazardous wastes
to developing countries.

"Currently, the combined
capacity of ship recycling facilities located in OECD countries would be enough
to properly recycle most of EU-flagged and EU-owned ships," argues
Patrizia Heidegger. "Instead of scrapping the EU ban on hazardous wastes
exports to developing countries, the EU should promote green ship recycling at
home."